Musikknotasjon

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of children’s invented notations as a measure of their musical understanding. Notations were compared on the basis of their inventors’ performance on tests of perceptual discrimination, performance by singing and playing, and their age. Sixty children aged between 4 and 8 years were tested for their perceptual discrimination with the rhythm and tonal subtests of the Primary Measures of Musical Audiation (PMMA) (Gordon, 1979). After each child reproduced a short folk song by singing and playing, he or she was asked to «write the way the song sounds». Three independent judges scored the children’s singing and playing for their tonal and rhythmic accuracy and the children’s invented notations for indications of tonal and rhythmic awareness. A correlation of all independent variables showed scores on PMMA rhythm, PMMA tonal, singing, and playing and the child’s age to be significantly related. Because of the multicollinearity among variables, a principal components analysis was performed that extracted one factor and assigned a factor score to each subject. Inventors were divided into two groups. Mean factor scores for each group of inventors were compared using a one-way ANOVA. Significant differences (F = 39-12, p<-001) were found between musical understanding factor scores for groups of inventors. The higher the musical understanding factor score, the more likely the notation reflected pitch awareness. Likewise, inventors were grouped according to rhythm awareness. Mean factor scores for groups were found to be significantly different (F= 24*41, p< 001). The higher the musical understanding score, the more likely that the notation embodied an awareness of rhythm. The results of this study suggest that skills in perception and performance, as well as age, may contribute to musical understandings that are reflected in children’s invented musical notations, lending evidence to the validity of children’s invented notations as a measure of their musical understanding.

This study explores the possible influence of musical notation writing activities on the understanding of basic Western musical notation, in the light of the interrelation between language reading and writing. The main research question was: How can writing activities influence the understanding of a musical notation system among late elementary and early intermediate instrumental pupils? In addition, information was collected about the instrumental teachers’ experience from using music writing activities as a part of instrumental lessons. The participants were two teachers and 18 instrumental pupils aged 8–11, from an extracurricular School of Music and Performing Arts in Western Norway. They took part in an experiment focusing on music writing, and in two interviews with elements of pre- and post-tests. The findings indicate that the use of writing activities can contribute to a deeper understanding of musical notation. Reading ability does not seem to transfer automatically to writing ability in music. The findings are discussed in an educational perspective, emphasising using music writing as a tool for (1) the development of music literacy skills, (2) assessment of the level of understanding of musical notation and (3) increasing pupils’ engagement in instrumental lessons.

Denne studien er et bidrag til performativ musikkforskning, med et pedagogisk utgangspunkt. Metodologisk utforsker forfatterne eksperimentelle innganger til musikkforskning gjennom performance-skriving og collageteknikk. Artikkelen er en studie av på hvilke måter en komponists nærkamp med notefienden, vanskene med å lese og skrive noter, får agens i hennes komposisjon og formidling av musikk. Musikken i studien er komponert til tekster av den norske dikteren Herman Wildenvey, og studien gjør nedslag i tre tidsperioder med et spenn på tre desennier. Gjennom performance-skriving viser forfatterne hvordan notelesingsvanskene både hindrer og utfordrer det kreative arbeidet, og gjennom diffraktiv analyse undersøkes notefiendens agens i tre diffraksjoner: (1) når komponisten skaper melodiene til Wildenveys lyrikk, (2) når sangene blir urfremført og lydfestet, og (3) når komponisten og pianisten performativt utforsker en av sangene i samspill. Studien viser at notelesingsvanskene får betydning for komponistens valg av musikkstil, selvforståelse og kroppslige tilstedeværelse i musikken, og for det musiker-metaspråket som komponist og pianist utvikler i samspillsituasjonen. Studien avdekker gjennom et postperspektiv, inspirert av Barad, hvordan erfaringer fra en tidlig musikkpedagogisk praksis setter spor som har virkning i nåtid. Artikkelen gir også et eksempel på hvordan performativ læring er agent for endring og myndiggjøring i et livslangt perspektiv.

Music education discourse is marked by frequent comparisons of music to language, and of music notation to written language. However, the role played by writing, as opposed to reading, is often overlooked in that discourse, as well as in classroom practices and workbooks. Consequently, far too many students can read music notation but not write it. Failing to achieve full literacy in their field, they develop a habit of deference toward printed music. Plato argues in the Phaedrus that we should not take that which is written too seriously. Letting students write music will help them to achieve the perspective of Plato—himself a writer. To read and write are inseparable phases of the same process, representing the understanding and domination of the language and of language.